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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24057946">Jet-Lagged Heart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/18larrystylinsons/pseuds/18larrystylinsons'>18larrystylinsons</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Direction (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, Louis Tomlinson Loves Harry Styles, M/M, Omegle, Self-Indulgent, Social Media, YouTuber Louis, Youtube AU, college student Harry, long distance, lots of banter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:47:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,026</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24057946</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/18larrystylinsons/pseuds/18larrystylinsons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry stumbles upon Omegle and it inspires his senior thesis. </p>
<p>Louis Tomlinson is a popular British YouTuber. One of his top series on his channel is his Omegle series. </p>
<p>Harry finds Louis, or does Louis find Harry?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Harry</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry sat in the office of his favorite professor and academic mentor. Dr. Morales was an anthropology professor who was helping Harry with his senior thesis. </p><p>“Dr. Morales, I only have one semester left to complete my thesis and I have no clue where to even begin.” Harry stated.</p><p>“Well, what are you interested in doing with your anthropology degree, Mr. Styles?” </p><p>Harry wasn’t sure. He barely knew what he wanted to eat for dinner that night, let alone what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. </p><p>He stayed silent</p><p>“Well, when you know, or have an idea, come back to me and I’ll help you form a proposal,” Dr. Morales suggested.</p><p>Harry was grateful for Dr. Morales. She had been his rock for the past three and a half years. When Harry decided to travel 600 miles from New York to Virginia for college, she became his family after she had been his first anthropology professor his first semester of freshman year. He stayed with her for Thanksgiving, and even Easter. And now, she got to help him with one of the most important projects of his collegiate career.</p><p>“Thanks, Dr. Morales. I’ll talk to you later,” Harry said as he stood up from his seat and started walking towards his car. On his walk he was trying to brainstorm any possible idea for his thesis. He just could not find anything he was interested in enough.</p><p>When Harry arrived back at his shared apartment with his best friend, Niall, he decided to give his brain a break and watch some YouTube. Harry mostly watched vlogs, his favorite was to watch mommy vloggers. He was barely paying attention when a video came up of some guy on this website called Omegle? Omegle was a weird word. However, this video intrigued him. The guy who was filming to content was some British Liam Payne dude that he’s never heard of. Harry was curious about this site and decided to plug it into google.</p><p>Harry quickly discovered that it was a website where you could chat online with random strangers based on shared interests. He decided to give it a shot himself. </p><p>He typed the website into the address bar. He contemplated what to put into the “interests” section, but ended up going with a basic “YouTube”. </p><p>The first person that came up on the screen was a little girl of about eleven years old whose first reaction to Harry was, “oh wow! You’re cute!” Harry quickly disconnected because, well, she was eleven.</p><p>The second person wasn't much better. It was actually worse. It was some random guy’s dick just sitting there in front of the camera. Harry stared for a few seconds in disbelief before disconnecting.</p><p>The third, however, was the best of them all. </p><p>The first thing Harry saw was blue. Blue eyes, scruffy brown hair, sharp cheekbones, and golden skin. The guy had a pretty sick set up going on behind the camera, like he was a crazy gamer. </p><p>“Hello??” Harry heard the voice before he could process the interaction.</p><p>“Oh, hi! Finally someone who’s not an eleven year old girl or a penis.” Realizing what he said, Harry covered his mouth. The boy on the other side started laughing. </p><p>“Hey curly! I’m filmin’ a video here, do ya have anything to say to the viewers back home?”</p><p>The boy had a strong British accent. It made Harry melt a little. But, he kept his cool and proceeded to say, “here’s a word of advice, if you’re in university, do not wait until your final semester to write your senior thesis.”</p><p>“Great advice, thanks curly!” The boy said. “Subscribe to me on YouTube! M’name’s Louis Tomlinson! I’m trying to get to 5 mil by next week!”</p><p>“Oh, sure! Of course!” Harry said. Louis hung up the call and Harry left Omegle. He went back to YouTube and searched up “Louis Tomlinson”</p><p>Apparently, he does a whole series of Omegle interactions on his channel, and he seems to be friends with the Liam guy Harry was watching earlier. Harry hit the subscribe button and became sucked into the Omegle series on Louis’ channel.</p><p>With every video, Harry loved this Omegle thing even more. And suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his head.</p><p>His senior thesis! </p><p>Since Harry’s minor was linguistics, he decided to do his own research about the usage of words when someone is masked with a sense of <br/>anonymity. So many ideas were racing through his head. As soon as he figured out the details, Harry got started on the research proposal on his own. </p><p>-</p><p>Harry was breathless from running across campus when he sat down in Dr. Morales’ office during her office hours. She was on the phone when he walked in and mouthed “one second” to him as she finished the conversation. As soon as she hung up, she looked at Harry expectantly.</p><p>He quickly brought out his research proposal and plopped it onto her desk. Dr. Morales let out a sigh of relief, however she still cautiously took the paper into her hands and began to read it.</p><p>After about ten excruciating minutes, Dr. Morales looked at Harry with a small smile on her face.</p><p>“Well, Mr. Styles, what are you sitting there staring at me for? Time to get to work.”</p><p>Harry yelped in excitement, grabbed his proposal, and stood up.</p><p>“Thanks, Dr. Morales. For...everything. I mean it.”</p><p>She nodded and chuckled, “Yeah, yeah save it for your Nobel Prize acceptance speech in ten years.”</p><p>Harry smiled and walked out the door. </p><p>Today could not get any better, he thought to himself. </p><p>-<br/>Harry had a long day. After his meeting with Dr. Morales, he had class and a paper to write. He was finally stepping through the door of his apartment for the first time since the early morning and all he wanted to do was take a nap. </p><p>As he walked to his own room, he heard the familiar cackle from the room right across the hall from his. Harry walked over to Niall’s door and knocked softly before opening it.</p><p>“Hey Haz! How was your day?” Niall asked from his bed, laptop right next to him. </p><p>“Really good! Morales loved my research proposal.”</p><p>“That’s my boy!” Niall cheered. “Wait, what are ya doin’ your thesis on again?”</p><p>“Oh! Yeah! Uh...it’s like got to do with this website Omegle-”</p><p>Niall cut him off, “Dude! I know what Omegle is! This funny ass guy, Louis Tomlinson, does them on YouTube.”</p><p>Before Harry could say anything, Niall was already pulling up the YouTube channel. </p><p>“Oh look! He just uploaded a new Omegle video today! Come and watch with me.”</p><p>Harry took a deep breath and sat next to Niall. Maybe he didn’t include him in the video, Louis probably came across hundreds of people while he did them. Or maybe, he thought, this video was filmed on a different day.</p><p>The video played. As per usual, Louis was hilarious. And cute. 10 minutes of the video went by, no Harry in sight. He was just about to call it quits when he heard his own voice coming from Niall’s speakers.</p><p>
  <em>“....someone who’s not an eleven year old girl or a penis!”</em>
</p><p>Niall began to laugh. “Harry, man! What the fuck, this is so funny! Why didn’t you tell me you got on here with him?”</p><p>Harry chuckled. “Ni, I don’t know. Didn’t think it was important, but it did inspire my thesis. So, I guess it was a little important.”</p><p>Niall shrugged and then scrolled down to the comments section, Harry assumed it was to see if anyone was saying anything about him. And boy were they saying things about him. Niall began to read them out loud, trying his best to stay calm. </p><p>“Okay, LTFAN28 said, <em>‘omG! That guy at the end of the video is soooo hot!!’</em> and Gaming with Kevin wrote, <em>‘I’m no homo but dude that guy at the end….got me feelin some typa way..’</em>”</p><p>“Oh my god, Niall. They all want to fuck me,” Harry deadpanned.</p><p>Niall startled him when he started laughing. Again. This time, uncontrollably. Harry thought he could see tears starting to come down his face. “Harry, this might be the most amazing thing that’s ever happened.”</p><p>Niall kept reading and started taking screenshots. He was never going to let Harry live this down. Harry, however, didn’t care what the comments had to say about him. Though, in the back of his mind, he wondered what Louis thought of him. </p><p>Harry wandered to his own room and set his things down on his desk chair. He kicked off his shoes before sprawling on the bed. Curiosity got the best of him when he suddenly was searching Louis’ name on instagram. He clicked follow and became one of the one million other humans that also followed Louis. So, Harry thought it couldn't hurt to send him a quick direct message. Right?</p><p><strong>harrystyles</strong>: hey! My name is Harry. I saw you included me in your Omegle video and I thought it was funny! My roommate is a huge fan! Thanks, man!</p><p>Harry clicked send and clicked off his phone. He got back up to head to the kitchen. It was Friday--finally--which meant pizza and beer night. Lucky for Harry, it was also Niall’s turn to buy the pizza and beer this week.</p><p>He called out from the kitchen, “Ni! It’s your week to buy!”</p><p>Harry heard footsteps followed by, “Already got it, Haz. Should be here any minute!”</p><p>As if on cue, Niall’s phone started ringing. The front desk was calling to tell him his food was here. Minutes later, the scent of pizza filled their entire apartment. Harry cracked open a couple of coronas and handed one to Niall.</p><p>The two of them sat on the couch, happy as clams. When Niall’s movie choice began to play, Harry felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Fiddling it out, he was expecting to see a Snapchat from Nick or a text from his mom. What he did see was neither of those. There was both a follow request and a message from Louis Tomlinson. He accepted the request and timidly opened the message. </p><p><strong>louist28:</strong> curlyyyyy!!!!! mate! So glad u and ur mate enjoyed the vid. subscribers loved u!!! massive thx for being chill about being in there. we’re actually filming another vid tmw on omegle. U should def pop on around 4pm my time (truthfully i have no clue what ur time zone is)....set ur interests as fifa and youtube.,, hope 2 see u then :D</p><p>Harry’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, waiting for a good response to suddenly appear from his singular brain cell. </p><p><strong>harrystyles</strong>: maybe i will “pop on”. I am in Eastern Time so thank goodness it won’t be at the crack of dawn. See you then. :)</p><p>Harry clicked his phone off and put his focus back on the movie. </p><p>Today was a good day.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Louis</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Lou, do you really want to do <em>another</em> Omegle video?” Liam prodded. “You just did one like, a day ago.”</p><p>Louis rolled his eyes. “Yes, Liam. I want to do another Omegle video. It’ll be good to have a video already filmed for when we have a slow week.”</p><p>Liam didn’t seem convinced. He said, “Do you actually want to film an Omegle video or do you just want an excuse to see that American guy with the curly hair you can’t shut up about?”</p><p>Liam was right. He was always right. However, Louis would pop his own eyeballs out before he let him know that. So, Louis just scoffed and got back to editing next week’s video. Liam was sitting on the small couch in Louis’ gaming-room-slash-filming-room. They have been best friends for almost ten years. They launched their respective YouTube channels at the same time when they met each other in secondary school. Louis had always been into gaming and Liam’s channel was a combination of daily vlogs and fun challenges. They both got lucky, and after about a year of posting to nobody but their mothers, their channels took off.</p><p>Soon, they were traveling to London every other week for business meetings and different events. By the time they were both 18, they had each saved up enough money to get their own apartments in London in the same building as each other. Now, they were both twenty-five and living a life they’d always dreamed of. </p><p>“Alright Lima Bean, pull a chair over. It’s about to be four, so let’s start on our Omegle adventure!” Louis always got excited about this series on his channel, filming it was the best part. </p><p>Louis turned the camera on and started recording his screen. It was all so familiar to him, he loved it. He did his usual intro and then began to pull Omegle up onto the screen. He typed in the interests: fifa and YouTube. Doing so reminded him of Harry. Louis’ heart sped up. He hoped Harry was going to show up…</p><p>The boys continued to talk to random people and make jokes with them. Many recognized them and they were the funniest ones. They just yelled into the microphone the whole time. If they were lucky, they’d get a complete weirdo who had no idea who they were. About an hour had gone by and there was still no sign of Harry. </p><p>Louis’ hope was dwindling and wanted to change interests because he wanted a change-up. He was beginning to space out when Liam smacked him on the shoulder. “Lou, look!”</p><p>Louis focused on the screen only to see a boy with bleach blonde hair and another...oh. Wait, it was Harry!</p><p>Louis felt himself smile when Harry brought his hand up on the screen into a wave. Louis finally broke his own silence. “Harry! Good to have you back, mate! You’ve got loads of fans subscribed to my channel, got any wise words to say to them again?”</p><p>Harry smiled, then cleared his throat before he began to speak. “Hi y’all! Hope you’re doing well. I do have some advice today. Don’t go on weird websites or you’ll find creepy british men who want to put you in their YouTube videos.” Harry’s tone was pure sarcasm, so Louis didn’t take it seriously. So, he just laughed. They all did. What in the world was his life?</p><p>“Thank you, Mr. Harold for your inspiring words. You have been a delight to have on this channel. Like I said, the people love you and I’ve got an obligation to give the people what they want.”</p><p>Louis, Liam, Harry, and Harry’s friend Niall all continued to chat for a little while longer. It was weird, but Louis felt like these two oddball Americans were always meant to be in his life. Maybe in an alternate universe they were all childhood friends, or in a boyband together, or something of the kind. </p><p>They all exchanged social medias because they <em>had</em> to stop meeting on this crazy website and keep in touch in another way. When they finally hung up, Louis turned off the camera and the computer and turned to Liam. Who, by the way, was giving him a weird fucking look and he needed to stop that right now. </p><p>“Louis! You are absolutely <em>smitten</em> with that boy! You’ve met him, what, like one other time on Omegle?”</p><p>Louis shrugged. What could he say? Liam was right again and Louis hated it. Apparently the best Louis could come up with was, “He’s just, I don’t know, nice?”</p><p>“Lou, that man is exactly your type. It’s just, you know, he lives in America. He’s not exactly a viable option? And how do you know he’s even gay?”</p><p>Louis didn’t know. He never did, though, his gaydar was the worst. He didn’t even know he was gay until Liam had to tell him about a month into their move to London. Liam had explained to him that straight men didn’t openly express their desires to have sex with Ryan Gosling. Again, Liam was right. </p><p>Though, Louis’ subscribers had no idea he was gay. It’s not that he didn’t want to tell them, he just didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. His channel was for gaming and fun, not his personal life. He didn’t think his subscribers would hate him for it, it’s just a separate, more private part of his life. </p><p>Liam finally pulled Louis out of his thoughts by tapping him on the shoulder and telling him to get ready. Right. They were going to a business dinner that night and then out to a club with some friends. Liam went back to his apartment a few floors below his to change and they met in the lobby. They hauled a taxi cab and made their way to a nice restaurant across town. </p><p>The meeting they had tonight was with an up-and-coming American company called Infinity. Infinity was a tech company that was releasing video games that were growing exponentially popular with Americans. So, by nature, they wanted to increase their market into the UK. Louis and Liam were apparently perfect for that. </p><p>They arrived and gave the name that the company had put the reservation under and were brought to a table where two other men were sitting. There was one guy, probably in his 50s, and another guy around Louis’ age, who had tan skin and jet-black hair. Boy, was he attractive. The two stood up to greet Liam and Louis.</p><p>“Simon Cowell,” the older man said with a thick American accent. He reached his hand out to shake their hands. “This is my intern, Zayn Malik.”</p><p>“Nice to meet you,” Liam said, shaking both their hands. Louis introduced himself in the same way and they finally sat down. </p><p>Simon Cowell spoke again, “Louis, Liam, it’s great to finally meet you guys. We are beyond excited to start working with you. However, there are some conditions.”</p><p>Liam opened his mouth to respond, he was always better with business deals than Louis was. “What kind of conditions? Can we see the contract?” Before Zayn could pull the papers out of his briefcase, Simon spoke up. </p><p>“Well, you’ll have to do at least two ads on your channels per month, or one for every four videos, whichever fits your posting schedules. You must also post about us in any form of social media besides YouTube at least once a month. You’ll be paid based on the level of engagement your followers and subscribers have with each post or advertisement,” Simon explained.</p><p>“That’s all?” Louis asked. </p><p>Zayn piped in this time, “No, actually. You have to come to our headquarters once every 6 or so months to film promo videos with us and other miscellaneous things. And you’re required to visit for your first time at the end of this month.”</p><p>“Well, that’s fine with me,” Liam said. “Lou, you have some contacts in New York right?”</p><p>“Well, our HQ isn’t in New York, Liam. We’re based in Richmond, Virginia,” Zayn said. </p><p>Virginia? What an odd name for a place. Louis felt like he'd heard of it before, though. Except, he couldn’t place where exactly he’d heard it from. </p><p>“That’s okay with us, right Louis?” Liam coaxed. </p><p>“Yeah, yeah. Sounds great to me,” Louis replied. </p><p>Zayn pulled out the contracts and handed them over to the boys. They both read them over carefully before signing. They spent the rest of the night talking with the two men. Zayn was a student at University of Richmond who is studying international business. Simon had attended one of those fancy ivy schools before starting Infinity in Virginia. They were actually pretty cool. Louis was excited for this. </p><p>-</p><p>About a week passed and Simon had sent them their flight information. They were going to America next week. In all the years Louis had been a YouTuber, he’d only been to America twice. Both were for some conventions, one in Los Angeles and the other in New York City. He had no idea what this Virginia place would be like. So, he decided to do a classic Google Search. </p><p>It was a beautiful place, really. There was, apparently, a lot of history in the city and it was a popular tourist destination. Maybe he and Liam could get some sightseeing done while they were there, even though they were only going to be there for a few days. </p><p>Louis logged into instagram to search up Richmond to see if there were any popular spots they might want to see. But before he could do so, a picture of Harry appeared on his feed. He hadn’t talked to Harry since their last Omegle. Louis had just gotten so busy. He had to film a couple videos and he had reached 5 million, so Liam threw him a surprise party.</p><p>So, Louis clicked on his profile to send him a DM. He was just about to press the message button when he saw it. Harry’s instagram bio, which was…</p><p>
  <em>NY -&gt; VA</em><br/>
<em>U Richmond Anthro ‘20</em><br/>
<em>Treat People With Kindness</em>
</p><p>So <em>that’s</em> where Louis had heard of Virginia from.  Harry lived there. Louis still opened the DMs and began a new message. However, he didn’t want to tell Harry he was going to be in Richmond of all places in the world. He might come off as a creepy British stalker. He did not need Harry to think of him that way. So, he went with a much simpler message. </p><p><strong>louist28:</strong> hey harry!!!! How r u doin m8! soz i was mad busy this week! i got to 5 mil!!!</p><p>Harry replied not even a minute later. Louis was so relieved, he had hoped Harry didn’t hate him after he went MIA.</p><p><strong>harrystyles</strong>: No biggie! You’re a famous YouTuber, you must be pretty busy. It’s okay, though. I have been working on my senior thesis all week. I haven’t slept properly in days. </p><p>Louis had never gone to university, so he couldn’t relate. But, he continued the conversation. It surprisingly seemed to flow pretty easily.</p><p><strong>louist28:</strong> wish i could say i kno how u feel. truth b told, i nvr went to uni.,, youtube has been all ive done since i turned 18 ur def wayyyy smarter then me</p><p><strong>harrystyles</strong>: *than</p><p><strong>louist28:</strong> u little shit XD i told u u were smarter THAN me</p><p><strong>harrystyles:</strong> LOL</p><p><strong>harrystyles</strong>: You were actually the inspiration for my senior thesis. So, I guess you’re the reason I’m falling behind on sleep…</p><p>Louis wished he was keeping him from sleeping for other reasons. Wait no. He can’t be thinking like this. What. The. Fuck. He’s only spoken to Harry like three times ever. </p><p><strong>louist28:</strong> oh? how so?</p><p><strong>harrystyles:</strong> Your omegle videos. They inspired my topic. Speaking of school, I have to pay attention in class now. Talk to you soon, Louis.</p><p>Louis liked the message and shut off his phone. Today was a weird day. But, he was also a bit freaked that Harry lived in Richmond. So, naturally, he found himself walking down to Liam’s place. Louis let himself in since the door was unlocked.</p><p>“Honey, I’m home!” Louis exclaimed. Liam waved from the couch where he was watching Batman. Again. </p><p>“Ugh this shit again? Can we watch something else, Lima?” Louis said as he plopped down next to him.</p><p>Liam ignored Louis’ question and opted for, “What’s up, Louis?”</p><p>“What do you mean, ‘What’s up?’, nothing’s up. I’m fine,” Louis said. </p><p>Liam narrowed his eyes at him. He always knew when Louis wasn’t fine.</p><p>“Liam?” Louis started. “Did you know Harry and Niall lived in Virginia? Like where we’re going next week?”</p><p>“Yes, Louis.”</p><p>“Why didn’t you say anything?”</p><p>“I thought you knew.”</p><p>“I didn’t. Have you talked to them?”</p><p>“Nah, been too busy. Maybe when we get there we’ll message them.”</p><p>Louis nodded his head and turned to watch the movie with Liam. He was going to try and distract himself with Christian Bale. Although, he couldn’t stop thinking about their trip next week.</p>
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